Bayona
Iced Tea
Pickles and Garlic
Sweet Potato Brioche with Maple Butter
Goat Cheese Crouton with Mushrooms in Madeira Cream
Mushroom-Parmesan Arancini with Tomato, Rosemary and Mushroom Salad
Seared Scallops with Cauliflower, Watercress and Sundried Tomato Vinaigrette
Veal Sweetbreads with Beets, Crispy Potatoes and Sherry-Mustard Butter
Grilled Pork Chop with Rutabaga-Apple Puree, Grilled Asparagus and Cider-Mustard Jus
Crispy Smoked Quail Salad with Pears, Spiced Pecans and Bourbon Molasses
Opera Cake – Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter Mousse and Peanut Butter Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Belle Pear Helene – Almond Basque Cake, Vanilla Ice Cream, Hot Honey Fudge Sauce
Fondant – Brandied Cherries, Chicory Crème Anglaise, Cocoa Nib Tuille
Less famous than the supersized personality of Emeril Lagasse, but every bit the New Orleans icon for more than twenty-five years, Susan Spicer’s Bayona may not seem as thrilling as it was when embracing the Slow Food movement several years prior to the rest of America, but that certainly does not mean the Beard Award winning Chef’s classics are any less deserving of their place in the city’s rich culinary framework.
Located at 430 Dauphine Street, the two hundred-plus year old home hosting countless dinners even before Chef Spicer converted it into a proper restaurant featuring globally influenced fare in 1990, those venturing into Bayona are advised to seek parking at a distance as the tight streets of the French Quarter are invariably packed with both locals and tourists while the restaurant offers no valet option, entry through the small courtyard bringing diners face-to-face with a hostess stand at the center of several rooms, a cozy four-top in what used to be the parlor generally quite comfortable, though unseasonably warm temperatures left the air feeling both moist and a stagnant.
Catered to by a team of two, the Captain clearly focused on a large party of regulars while a younger man seemed a bit wet behind the ears in presenting plates, it was in three courses that appetites were invested, a small pot of Pickles offered to munch on including whole cloves of Garlic.
Joining legions of peers in charging for Bread, the controversial practice less than appreciated in this case as the ‘Sweet Potato’ Brioche tasted like little more than dry Dinner Rolls even with sweetened Butter, better bites from round one included a substantial Quail Salad alongside the classic triangles of Bread toasted with Goat Cheese beneath Mushrooms and Cream Sauce, a trio of Rice Balls actually the best of all as each tender Fritter yielded an pronounced woodsy flavor well suited to pan-seared Fungus in a Sauce of Sundried Tomatoes.
Identifying classics with a small “b,” Chef Spicer’s Sweetbreads creamy beneath a crisp sear and offered in two sizes with the appetizer portion likely more than rich enough for most, seasonal variants on both Scallops and a Pork saw the current culinary team turn to the late Summer for accoutrements, Cauliflower and Watercress brightening the first while lightly sweetened Rutabaga puree joined thin stalks of Asparagus alongside the thick and juicy Chop.
Not particularly full, but affected by heat and humidity as the restaurant nearly reached capacity, dessert proved a worthwhile, if unmemorable, finale – the Fudge-topped Basque Cake undoubtedly best of all as it reimagined a classic Pear Sundae into something more complicated, the Dark Chocolate Opera Cake pretty standard stuff while the Fondant was tasty despite being cooked to the point of solidifying the center of boozy Cherries and Chocolate.
www.bayona.com
